The seven-member panel reports directly to Mayor Rosen. The panel's recommendations were shared with the City Council on July 2, 2024. Their report can be viewed on the city website here: Blue Ribbon Panel Presentation
Other deliverables created by the Panel include:
The panel is led by Mike Bailey.
Mr. Bailey has an exceptional reputation grounded in a long list of credentials helping local government. He has served as Finance Director for the Cities of Everett, Redmond, Lynnwood, and Renton among others. He is a former member of the GFOA board of directors and a national trainer and consultant for the GFOA. He has successfully guided cities across the country through this process.
Troy Rector, CPA, CGMA
A Clark Nuber shareholder in the firm’s Not-for-Profit and Public Sector Service Groups, Troy Rector has led financial statement audits of some of the firm’s largest government entities. He leads Single Audit engagements covering a range of federal agencies and programs including the CARES and ARPA Acts. Troy also advises organizations concerning compliance with federal grant requirements, including compliance gap analysis, procurement systems, subrecipient monitoring, and indirect cost rate proposals.
Erin Monroe, CPA
Ms. Monroe is a Certified Public Accountant with over 25 years of experience in the private and public sectors and over 14 years in executive management. Erin is currently the President of Monroe & Associates, dba Ultralign, LLC and either provides professional financial consulting to organizations or acts as their interim CEO or CFO. Erin’s experience includes serving as an Assistant Audit Manager for the State of Washington, an internal auditor for PEMCO, CFO/CEO/President at Workforce Snohomish, and also served as an accountant at the City of Edmonds.
Scott James, CPA
Former finance director for the city of Edmonds, Mr. James served in that position from 2014 to 2020. When he left the city, Edmonds was in a strong financial position and had earned an AAA long-term rating from Standard & Poors. Scott has also served as Finance Director for the cities of Mukilteo, Sunnyside, Snohomish, and Stanwood. He is currently serving as the Finance Director for Edmonds Waterfront Center.
Rick Canning
Rick has 35+ years as a CFO leading finances and budgeting at hospitals and healthcare systems. He has led the preparation and implementation of many financial turn-around plans. More recently, he was the CFO/COO at Stevens Hospital, a governmental district hospital, including the transition to Swedish Edmonds. During this time, he led a successful financial turnaround and helped negotiate a long-term lease of the hospital to Swedish. He is familiar with governmental accounting and was a CPA.
Carl Zapora
Carl was the CEO of Verdant Health with responsibility for the 200-bed hospital district entity, financial, and capital assets. He oversaw a $10 million annual budget and $70 million in assets. Previously he was President and CEO of United Way of Snohomish County and VP & Mid-America Regional Director for United Way of America with responsibility for 600 United Ways in 20 states.
Darrol Haug
Darrol was with AT&T doing long-range planning for the Bell System. He did long-range revenue forecasting for the local Bell affiliate US West. He has served on several school district committees developing long-range enrollment studies, new school construction, and other levy issues. For Edmonds, he has served on three Economic Development Commissions, two levy committees, and helped develop the Strategic Action Plan.
The Blue Ribbon Panel submitted their report to City Council on July 2, 2024. Their report can be viewed on the Blue Ribbon Panel Presentation page.
The panel met on the following dates and have submitted their recommendations as of July 2024.
- 1/29/24
- 2/13/24
- 2/21/24
- 3/1/24
- 3/8/24
- 3/22/24
- 4/5/24
- 4/22/24
- 5/2/24
- 5/8/24
- 5/21/24
- 6/12/24
- 6/28/24